SAP () disappointed investors Wednesday by reporting first-quarter revenue and software license sales that missed analyst estimates. It also said a key software project has been delayed. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, said net income fell 22% from the year-earlier quarter to 242 million euros, or $374 million at early Wednesday’s currency exchange rate. Excluding the write-down from its nearly $7 billion acquisition of business intelligence software maker Business Objects, SAP said...

BOSTON: Reebok International and its corporate parent, Adidas Group, an Olympic sponsor, are dropping plans for a hospitality facility to host athletes, guests and journalists at the Beijing Games because of logistical demands made by the Chinesegovernment.

Reebok, which has a major marketing campaign built around Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star and Reebok endorser, also said there was now only a slim chance that the brand would be able to host a public event with Yao in Beijing, as the company had initially planned, said Josie Stevens, Reeboks director of global publicrelations.

The company is considering other options, including holding an event in Houston. Yao, the center for the Houston Rockets, has been getting physical therapy there since an injury thisyear.

“It was proving a challenge on the ground in terms of getting all the logistics and practicalities being asked of us,” said Stevens, who declined to provide details. “It was a difficultdecision.”

Reebok typically has a hospitality facility at the Olympics to play host to about 100 people daily. The company, which is outfitting 250 athletes, initially planned to share a facility with Adidas at a local school, but neither company will be going ahead with theplans.

These logistical difficulties, along with controversy over human rights issues in China, also led Reebok to decide against making these athletes available for news conferences or one-on-one interviews during the Olympics. Instead, Reebok plans to hire a video news service to have a mobile film crew interview athletes and distribute programming to mediaorganizations.

“As a brand,” Stevens said, “we didnt want to put our athletes in the position when being interviewed of having to explain their personal views on the human rights issue, and we also didnt want to act as a censoreither.”

Adidas said Wednesday that Reebok had not yet decided about sponsorship activities during the Olympics. “Reebok, which is not an official partner to the Olympic Games, is still planning its brand activities,” said an Adidas spokeswoman, Anne Putz, according to Bloomberg News.

Don Hinchey, a spokesman for Bonham Group, a sports and entertainment marketing firm in Denver, said everyone involved in the Olympics was on “pins and needles” about how to conduct business in Beijing with more stringent restrictions than ever before in Olympic history for journalists, athletes and businesses sponsoring theGames.

For other companies, watch the New America Report. In America these days, it’s getting harder and harder to get away from a TV screen. Whether you’re waiting for a haircut, buying groceries or pumping gas, you may well have video accompaniment. But when it comes to TV in public places, the U.S. is just catching up with China. According to Susquehanna Financial Group, almost 17% of Chinese ad spending goes to outdoor media, compared with just 3.5% in the U.S. Some of that goes...